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IN ACADIA. 



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THE ACADIANS 



1 N 



STORY AND SONG 



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NEW OKLEANS : 

F. F. Hansell & Bho., Publishers 
1803. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in 1S93, 

By William Preston Johnston, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C. 



InBzohanffB 
Duke University 

JUM i 3 1932 




THE GRAHAM PRESS 
NEW ORLEANS. 






^ 



Y 



CONTENTS. 



Intra duction, 

I. Historical Sketch nf the ilcadians, By John R, Ficklen, 

II, Did ilcadia Revisited, (Extract frnm Haddeck), By 
Charles Dudley Warner, 

III. The Acadian Land, (From Harper's Magazine,) By 

Charles Dudley Warn-er. "-^ 

IV, The Acadians at Louisiana, Their Social Life, 

(Extracts,) By Alcea Fortilr, 

V, The Acadians of Romance, (Extracts from Evange- 
line,) By Henry Longfellow, 



NTRODUCTION 



I have been led to undertake the compilation of this 
little volume by a desire to enHst the interest of the pub- 
lic in the Acadian people of Louisiana. Brought up in 
their neighborhood and personally acquainted with many 
of them, my family learned to respect their modest virtues 
and to admire the many excellent qualities that distinguish 
them; the courage and honesty of the men and the 
sweetness, purity and fidelity of the women. In the 
period of great depression through which Louisiana has 
passed, all industries languished and these unsophisticated 
peasants felt the touch of want in homes where formerly 
reigned a rude plenty. It was then that it occurred to us 
that if their handwoven fabrics of cotton, grown by 
themselves, could be brought to the attention of the art- 
loving public, a remunerative field would be open for their 
industry. My sister, Mrs. Sarah Avery Leeds, devoted 
herself to the task of encouraging these humble workers, 
and, through the agency of the Christian Women's Ex- 
change of New Orleans, found for the-m a market for 
their wares. These earnings have brightened many a 
cottage home. This industry has been extending for 



6 IN ACADIA. 

some years, and is now illustrated at the Louisiana Build- 
ing in the Columbian Exposition, where their simple 
handicrafts of spinning and weaving are carried on by 
Acadian women in their provincial costume. 

The opening of new railroads into their country, the 
influx of Northern immigrants, the cultivation of rice for 
export, and the enlightening influences of newly estab- 
lished schools have, within the past few years, wrought a 
great change in the condition of things. Soon the picture 
given in these pages of primitive Acadian life will belong 
to the past, and to preserve it from oblivion has been an- 
other incentive that these leaves should be gathered. 
The poet Longfellow has made old Acadia immortal, 
but the plain words of prose give added verity and 
power even to his limnings. 

The Acadians are the offspring of a sturdy stock of 
French peasantry planted in Nova Scotia in the begin- 
ning of the seventeenth century, who were expelled from 
their adopted country in 1755 by the English, and scat- 
tered by the rude hand of military power from Cape 
Breton to the Gulf of Mexico. Absorbed or rejected by 
other communities, a number of them found a congenial 
home in Southern Louisiana. Here preserving their na- 
tional traits, customs and speech, they have maintained 
themselves in communities distinct from their neighbors 
and quite separate from the great tide of American 
thought and progress. Whatever they may have lost by 
this isolation, they hav^ preserved the primitive virtues of 



IXTRODUCTION. 7 

a fine race of peasantry and have gained a physical de- 
velopment superior to their ancestors in the old country. 
Satisfied with the easy conditions of life in a land of 
plenty, they have lived without ambition and with a 
history the least eventful of all people of the United States. 
Nevertheless, from their ranks have arisen many men 
who have helped to shape the destiny of Louisiana. 
Governors Thibodaux and Mouton were justly honored. 
In our late civil war such leaders as General Alfred 
Mouton, Fournet and others won honored recognition 
among the soldiers of the South, and in more recent 
times the names of Poche, Voorhies, and Breaux have 
given dignity to the bench and bar of the State. 

In attempting to give to the public in brief form a true 
picture of this population so remote from the highways of 
the world, I have conceived it to be necessary to present 
a short but well considered account of the Acadians of 
Nova Scotia. This has been kindly prepared for this 
little volume by Professor John R. Ficklen, Professor of 
History in Tulane University. In this sketch no indulgence 
of fancy has been allowed to mar the historical accuracy 
of the details. The compiler desires here to make ac- 
knowledgment to Professor Ficklen for his generous aid. 
To complete the picture of the Acadians in Nova Scotia, 
a leaf has been borrowed from " Baddeck," through the 
complaisance of its distinguished author, Mr. Charles 
Dudley Warner, in which he quaintly portrays the remnant 
of this people in their old home. 



8. IN ACADIA. 

As has been already stated, the Acadians of Louisiana 
are a simple and ingenuous people; no romance hovers 
around them other than that which clusters about the 
virtuous lives of home-loving cottagers. As a population, 
though not enterprising, they are industrious ; the women 
spinning and weaving, the men tilling their farms and 
herding their cattle. Many of them live upon the bayous 
opening into the Gulf and are excellent sailors, giving 
proof of their Norman and Breton ancestry. One of the 
most pleasing features of their social life is the general 
amenity and the self-respect of their bearing. They 
exercise an unostentatious hospitality, and the stranger 
within their gates is kindly welcomed ; but, as French is 
the only language used among them, the difference of 
ispeech offers an effectual barrier to the outside world. 
Their French is not, as is erroneously supposed, a rude 
■patois, but conforms very closely to the prevailing dialect 
of Normandy and is very little removed from a good French 
vernacular. It varies, however, with different localities. 
In the spring of 1886 it was my good fortune, together 
with several members of my family, to make a pilgrimage 
into the heart of the Acadian settlements with Mr. Charles 
Dudley Warner as our guest, and I was thus prepared for 
his charming article published in Harper's Monthly of 
February of the following year. His descriptions of what 
we saw are so vivid and graphic that I have asked and 
obtained permission to reproduce them in part in this com- 
pilation. 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

Professor Alcee Fortier of Tulane University has given 
a veracious and naive description of a visit to the Acadian 
country, from which I have borrow^ed most freely. My 
only regret is that the limits of my little volume do not 
permit me to transfer to these pages his eloquent account 
of the expulsion of the Acadians, in which he goes over 
the same ground with Professor Ficklen, but with the 
natural indignation of a fellow-countryman to the exiles. 

No better idea can be given of the simple, contented 
lives of the Acadians, both before the tragedy of their ex- 
pulsion from their beloved Basin of Minas and in their 
new homes on the beautiful bank of the Teche in far 
Louisiana, than can be found in the pages of Evangeline. 
Scarcely anywhere is the power of poetic insight better 
illustrated than in this lovely poem. Longfellow never 
saw the scenes he describes with such wonderful fidelity. 
It is said that the descriptions of Louisiana landscape were 
sent him by a physician living in St. Martinsville, the old 
town he tells of at the headwaters of the Teche. Yet, 
while preserving an absolute truth to nature in every detail, 
his genius has cast a glamour and charm over the spread- 
ing prairies and luxuriant forests of the Attakapas, and lent 
a grace and a glory to the humble lives of its simple 
peasants, so that the beautiful and pathetic story of Evan- 
geline and her people possesses a perennial interest and 
enlists our kindest feelings for their descendants. So ti-ue 
is the poet to nature that often, in gliding over the dark 
waters of the winding bayou, I have exclaimed, " This 



10 IN ACADIA. 

was the home of Basil the blacksmith, and here is the turn 

where the wide speading live oak dipped its branches 

festooned with vines into the water and hid Evangeline's 

boat from her lover." 

With such aids to a vivid conception of the life and 

character of the Acadians and their environment, no better 

idea can be given of them than in extracts, often familiar, 

from the poem that has made them famous ; and it is with 

these borrowed pictures that I shall place them before my 

readers. 

Margaret Avery Johnston. 

New Orleans^ May, i^93' 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE ACADIANS 



BY JOHN R. FICKLEN 



jfiisiorical ^ketch o\ the ^Mcctdians. 

O understand the story of the Acadians we must 
first of all transport ourselves to another land than 
fair Louisiana, and we must imagine ourselves as 
present in the last century, when a fierce war for dominion 
was waging between those old-time enemies, France and 
England. The country that once bore the name of Acadia 
is now^ called Nova Scotia, a name that it received from a 
certain Sir William Alexander, who for a short period held 
the province as a grant from James I of England. 





BASIX OF MIXAS AXD MOl NT HI.OMIDOX. 

The exact boundaries of the province were for some time 
a subject of contention betw^een the two nations: but in 
the present sketch we shall regard Acadia as the peninsula 



14 IN ACADIA. 

lying east of New Brunswick, and between the Bay of 
Fundy and the Atlantic Ocean. 

This is the land around which Longfellow has thrown 
the glamour of romance, and if poetry were only history, 
we should be justified in rechristening the country and 
calling it Arcadia. The name Acadia, however, has a 
more prosaic origin; it is derived from Aquoddie, an 
Indian term for a fish called the pollock. Though the 
English claimed the country by virtue of Cabot's dis- 
covery, its earliest inhabitants were Frenchmen from the 
coast of France. Its settlement dates back to the time 
when the hardy fishermen of Normandy and Brittany plied 
their trade along the coast of Newfoundland and Cape 
Breton Island. 

The first town founded in Acadia was Port Royal, 
situated on a retired basin that opens upon the great Bay 
of Fundy. Here within sound of the mighty tides that 
rush through the broad inlet of Fundy, rising often to the 
height of sixty feet in Chignecto Bay, its northern ex- 
tremity, a Frenchman named Poutrincourt made a small 
settlement in 1605, just fifteen years before the Mayflower 
touched land at Pl^^mouth Rock. 

The story of the little colony was for many years the 
same as that of the English colonies in Virginia and 
North Carolina. It was a story of vicissitudes, the set- 
tlers gaining a precarious livelihood from the cultivation 
of the soil and from fishing, but depending largely upon 
the supplies sent over at long intervals by the mother 
country. But there was another circumstance that for 
more than a hundred years was destined to retard the 
prosperity of the Acadian peninsula. It lay just north of 
the English colonies that now form the New England 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 15 

States, and these colonies, from early times, looked with 
no good will upon a French settlement which was near 
enough to prove an important point of departure in case 
the French government determined to execute its vast 
plan of sweeping away the English settlers, and extend- 
ing the boundary of New France to the Atlantic sea- 
board. 

For many years after the founding of Port Roval, how- 
ever, Acadia was merely a pawn on the great chess-board 
of European diplomacy. During the ascendancy of 
Cromwell. New England forces were sent from Boston 
and Charleston, and the Acadians were brought nomi- 
nally under English rule: but Charles II. who was willinor 
to barter his kingdom to satisfy his vices, restored the 
country to the French, In 1690. during the reign of 
William and Mar}', it was again conquered by Massachu- 
setts forces, and again restored to France by the treaty of 
Rvswick seven years later. Then besran the War of the 
Spanish Succession, in which the Duke of Marlborough 
humbled the pride of France and dazzled the eyes of the 
world by a series of extraordinary victories. During this 
war the men of Massachusetts, as if in scorn of di- 
plomacy, had once more subdued Acadia; and when Louis 
XIV, exhausted by the long struggle, agreed to the peace 
of Utrecht (1713), he made a formal cession of Acadia 
or Nova Scotia to England. Since that famous treaty the 
countr}' has never changed hands. 

Doubtless when the transfer was accomplished, the 
simple-minded Acadians hoped for tranquillity and a 
chance to cultivate their rich fields, undismayed by the 
sound of cannon and musket. But the story of their 
woes was not vet ended. Atjainst their will they had 
2 



16 2N ACADIA. 

been subjected to a foreign domination, and when the 
English garrisons were placed over them, the}' naturally 
chafed under the government of a people who were aliens 
both in race and rehgion. Their lot suggests an analogy 
with that of the Britons during the Roman occupation. 
It is true that by the conditions of the treaty of Utrecht, 
the Acadians were to be allowed to emigrate within one 
year to the other French provinces, and to take with them 
their movable goods. But as by the same treaty they 
were granted the practice of their own religion in Nova 
Scotia, and as the English government, hoping to make 
them good subjects of the English sovereign, did not 
exercise any pressure, most of the inhabitants elected to 
remain, hi this period their number was small, there 
being in 1713 only some three hundred families in the 
whole province; and, of course, they were not regarded 
as a serious menace to the provincial government. But it 
soon became apparent that the Acadian race, like most 
other poor and simple people that live in country districts, 
was extremely prolific. Their fecundity was so great 
that, some years before the expulsion, the population rose 
to sixteen thousand souls. Though many of these emi- 
grated to the islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and to 
the French posts, there remained in 1754, one year before 
the expulsion, more than 9000 Acadians under the super- 
vision of the English garrisons. This large increase, it 
seems to the writer, has not been taken fully into con- 
sideration by those historians who condemn the expulsion 
of the Acadians as an act of unnecessary ci^uelty. 

When the English government, in 1713, took formal 
possession of Acadia, the old settlement of Port Royal was 
immediately occupied, and its name changed to Annapolis, 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 17 

in honor of Queen Anne, then reigning in England. In 
1 714, however, Queen Anne died, and when George I 
came to the throne. Governor Caultield thouj^ht that as 
the *' year of removal " had elapsed, the remaining inhabi- 
tants of Acadia should be summoned to swear allegiance 
to the new king. This oath the Acadians, perhaps in 
view of the fact that the English garrison consisted of only 
two hundred men, and that the fortune of war might soon 
restore the province to the hands of the French, refused 
to take during several years ; though according to the treaty 
of Utrecht they were " to enjoy the free exercise of their 
religion," onl\ if the}' were willing to be subject to the king- 
dom of Great Britain. For the present, howe\'er, though 
the oath was several times offered them, no effort was 
made to enforce it or to interfere with their religion : and 
the relations of the inhabitants with the provincial gov- 
ernment remained unsettled till 1725. In the meantime 
the English government had been constantly hearing 
reports that the Catholic priests sent among the Acadians 
from Canada were not only religious, but political mis- 
sionaries; and it was feared that this simple people, super- 
stitioush' attached to their religion, might soon be changed 
into rebels, and might thus assist in the recovery of the 
province b}' the French. In 1725, therefore, the English 
officials resolved that the long delayed oath should be 
taken. The officers, however, before whom the oath was 
subscribed, unfortunatel}' modified the form to suit the 
wishes of the inhabitants, who swore to be faithful to King 
George, but were permitted to add that in any subsequent 
wars they should be exempt from bearing arms against 
the French, the Indians or the English I This neutrality, 
ever afterwards claimed bv the Acadians, was, as we shall 



18 IN ACADIA. 

see, the pregnant source of trouble with the English author- 
ities. As soon as this new attitude of the inhabitants was 
reported to the lieutenant-governor of Acadia, he denied 
the right of the officers to grant such a concession ; and live 
years later (1730) nearly all the inhabitants consented to 
subscribe an oath without any written conditions. It ran 
as follows: " Je promets et je jure sincerement en foi de 
Chretien que je serai entierement fidele et obelrai vraiment 
a Sa Majeste le roi George II, que je reconnais pour le 
souverain seigneur de I'Acadie ou Nouvelle Ecosse." In 
spite, however, of this written form, the Acadians main- 
tained that a verbal promise was given them by Richard 
Phillips, governor at this time, that they should not be 
required to bear arms against the French or the Indians. 
In other words, if the Acadians spoke truly, this oath was 
as anomalous as the first, and reasserted their neutrality. 
Be that as it may, for twenty years no other oath was 
required of the Acadians, and when an unconditional oath 
was finally offered them, we shall see that it was offered 
by a stern, unrelenting governor, and that the people 
refused to accept it. 

As to the conduct of the Acadians towards the English 
during these twenty years, there are conflicting accounts. 
The truth seems to be that, though there was much dis- 
content, the great mass of the people demanded nothing 
better than to be let alone by both French and English. 
Their country was most favorable for the pursuit of agri- 
culture. Though the climate from December to March 
was severe, the temperature often falling to twenty degrees 
below zero, the summer and the autumn were most pro- 
pitious seasons. Breezes, at the same time balmy and 
invigorating, encouraged the growth of the crops, and the 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



19 



harvest months were beautiful beyond expression. A 
range of mountains, called the Cobequid, stretched across 
the peninsula their line of blue summits, and both the 
slopes and the valleys between were well watered and of 
extraordinary fertility. The simple farmers dreamed not 
of the rich coal fields which lay beneath the surface of the 
ground, and which in our day yield so abundantly, nor of 
the gold that has been discovered in glittering (rrains on 
the bottom of their mountain streams. It was enoucrh for 
them that the glebe was adapted to flowers, fruits and 
cereals, and that the rich harvests made the golden autumn 
a season of joy and abundance. If they could only have 
seen the government of France established once more in 
the land and the heretics expelled from its borders, their 
cup of happiness, they doubdess thought, would have been 
full to overflowinir. 

They lived in rude huts, and their domestic life seems 
to have been simple and as pure as life generally was 
among the humble and ignorant classes of that day. 
They were without books and without education. " In 
all my experience of the Acadians, " declares a contemp- 
orary, " I have never known more than one or two who 
could read and write. " It is a significant fact that in 
their oath of allegiance nearly all the inhabitants signed 
their names with a cross. They broke the monotony 
of their daily lives by squabbling over their boundaries, 
and bringing petty suits for the redress of grievances. 
But, however, peaceable their intentions were, they were 
not destined to live out their lives in ease and content- 
ment. 

Their priests, who owed allegiance to the bishop 
of Canada, continued to keep the Acadians in a state of 



20 IN ACADIA. 

unrest. Fearful lest their flocks, following their interest, 
would trade with the English and gradually forget their 
allegiance to France, these priests left no stone unturned 
to keep alive the strong antipathy that the Acadians natur- 
ally felt towards what they regarded as a domineering and 
heretical government. Alread}'^ in 1729, a priest named 
Breeley had been expelled from the province on the 
charge of exercising political influence. Later on one of 
his successors, Le Loutre, became famous throuohout the 
countr}' for his control over the simple-minded Acadians 
and the fierce tribe of Micmac Indians, whose services in 
making raids on the English settlements the French re- 
warded liberally. With a religious enthusiasm not in- 
ferior to that of Ignatius Lo3^ola himself, Le Loutre made 
himself the spiritual and political leader of the Acadians, 
threatening them with fire and sword if they disobeyed 
him. x\t the siege of Beausejour, he could be seen, in 
his shirt-sleeves, and pipe in mouth, rushing about among 
his people and encouraging them in the defence of the 
fort. Sincerity and devotion to the cause of religion are 
qualities that must always demand a degree of respect; 
but as the result showed, nothing could have been more 
unwise for the secular welfare of the Acadians than the 
ministration of their priests. Fanning the flame of re- 
ligious antipathy, inciting the people not to assimilate in 
any way the political ideas of their governors, the Acadian 
priests kept alive the suspicions of the English and helped 
to prevent the amalgamation of the two races. "No- 
body, " said a French contemporary, " was more fit than 
Le Loutre to carry discord and desolation into a coun- 
try.'' 

On Cape Breton Island, the strong fort of Louisbourg, 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 21 

the Gibraltar of America, had been built by the French at 
an enormous expense, and it was a constant menace to 
the peace of the nei<^hborino- province of Nova Scotia. 
But in 1745 the New Englanders, under Pepperrell, com- 
bined with the Eng-lish under Warren in a brilliant attack 
upon the fort, and Louisbour<r fell into the hands of the 
English. x\ll danger, therefore, from this quarter seemed 
to be removed ; but three years later, by the peace of Aix- 
la-Chapelle, George II, "yielding to diplomatic neces- 
sity," surrendered the island and the fort to Louis XV. 
This restoration, by increasing the danger of a French in- 
vasion, affected adversely the fortunes of the Acadians. 

Until the year 1749, however, affairs in Acadia received 
little attention from the English home government. The 
Dukeof Newcastle, who, for so manyyears, was prime min- 
ister to George II, was thoroughly incompetent to perform 
the duties of his high otiice. The king used to complain 
that it was a hard fate which imposed upon him the pre- 
miership of Newcastle, a man who was not worthy to be 
chamberlain to a petty German prince ; and Macaulay has 
scoffed at the duke for being ignorant that Cape Breton 
was an island. However, in 1743, the English seem to 
have appreciated the necessity of meeting the danger from 
the French by the planting of a colony in Nova Scotia. 
An advertisement in the London Gazette met with a ready 
response. Twenty five hundred settlers accepted the in- 
ducements offered by the government, and to this emigra- 
tion we owe the existence of the town of Halifax. This 
settlement, in three years, had increased to 4000 inhabi- 
tants, and its growth caused much disquietude among the 
French; for Canada was still in the possession of France, 
and Louis XV naturally wished to recapture the lost 



22 IN ACADIA. 

Acadia. The Micmac Indians were encouraged b}' Le 
Loutre to make raids on the English settlement, and thus 
discourage the growth of the colony. On one occasion 
the savages took eighteen scalps, " for which service Le 
Loutre was obliged to pay them 1800 livres, Acadian 
money;" a sum that was afterwards returned to him bv 
the French commander at Louisbourg. The indignation 
of the English at this savage method of waging war ma}' 
well be imagined. The Acadians, also, were encouraged 
to disguise themselves as Indians and join in these raids 
upon the country around Halifax. According to Park- 
man, " Many disguised Acadians did in fact join the In- 
dian war parties ; and their doing so was no secret to the 
English." 

In view of all this the new governor, Cornwallis, declared 
in 1749 that the Acadians must accept a new oath, which 
should deny them any exemption in the matter of bearing 
arms ; if called upon they must assist the English govern- 
ment against its enemies. While from a sentimental 
point of view such an oath may seem to us an act of 
oppression, it may be justified b}- an appeal to the customs 
and laws of all countries. Neutrality could not be granted 
to those who were living under the British flag in the 
British possessions, and so near to the hostile Canadian 
government. 

Hearing that this unconditional oath was to be adminis- 
tered, a deputation of Acadians appeared before Corn- 
wallis and asked for " a general permission to leave the 
province." But the governor replied that until peace were 
firmly established he could not grant such permission, be- 
cause as soon as they crossed to the Canadian border they 
would be compelled to take up arms against the English. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 23 

Thus we see that the poor Acadians were between two 
fires. To escape both was no longer possible. Their 
siUiation must appeal strongly to the sympathy of all who 
contemplate it. By race and rehgion they felt compelled 
to refuse to take an unconditional oath of allegiance to the 
EngHsh King: while the English government, pursuing 
that stern policy which has so often marked its dealings 
with other nations, was gradually coming to the decision 
that the Acadians must either take such an oath or be 
compelled to remove to some country where their presence 
could no longer menace the peace of the province. Alas 
for the Acadians that Quebec did not fall before the vic- 
torious arms of Wolfe in 1754 instead of 1759! With the 
English in possession of Canada, it is more than probable 
that the sad expatriation which we are to describe would 
never have taken place. 

It was, moreover, the peculiar misfortune of the 
Acadians that within a brief period they passed under the 
control of several different governors. Thus there was 
no continuity of policy. Cornwallis and his successor 
Hopson seem to have exercised considerable indulgence 
toward the peasant farmers. Though the strict oath was 
several times offered to the inhabitants, the latter always 
succeeded in deferring the evil day, and the final alterna- 
tive was not enforced. 

Far different were the character and the conduct of the 
man who in 1754 assumed the responsibilities of governor. 
This was Charles Lawrence, who had been a major in a 
company of infantry and afterwards chancellor in the 
cabinet of Governor Cornwallis. Thoroughly out of 
sympathy with the simple-minded and much harassed 
Acadians, Lawrence was bent on forcing them to conform 



24 IN ACADIA. 

to the letter of the English law, or expelling them from 
the province, and strengthening the power of England by 
introducing English settlers to occupy their lands. 

In former years the expulsion of the inhabitants had 
been several times suggested. It was especiallv advocated 
by Sherley, governor of Massachusetts, who wrote many 
letters on this subject to the Duke of Newcastle. In 
1747, however, the duke ordered Sherley to inform the 
Acadians that as long as they were peaceable subjects, 
they should remain in undisturbed possession of their 
lands. This assurance was due partly to the fear of the 
English that Le Loutre might continue to persuade the 
Acadians under his control to take refuge in Canada, 
where they would swell the numbers of the French : and 
partly to the hope that it would finally be possible to 
identify the interests of the Acadians with the wishes of 
the English government. 

Having decided that it was impossible to attain the end 
in view by peaceable means, Lawrence determined to 
resort to drastic measures. Whether or nor he regarded 
the Acadians as a standing menace to the safety of the 
English settlements has been a subject of controversy 
between two rival historians in our own country. The fact 
is that Lawrence has left us two letters on this important 
point, the contents of which are contradictory. Thus in 
1 75 1, he writes to the English Board of Trade as follows: 
"I believe that a very large part of the Acadians zvould 
submit to any terms rather than take up arms on either 
side.^' But again in 1755, just a few months before the 
expulsion, he writes this letter to General Braddock: " I 
esteem it my duty to acquaint you that, in'case of a rupture 
with France, my forces will no ways be in proportion to 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 25 

the number of posts which we must be obliged to defend, 
especially if it be considered that, even in the heart of the 
province, we have what they call neutral French (Aca- 
dians), inhabitants well armed and connected with the 
French king; so that upon the least attempt which Canada 
would make to invade us, I believe /'/ is more than probable 
that they would immediately join them.'' Which letter shall 
we accept as expressing the true convictions of Governor 
Lawrence when he ordered the expulsion of the Acadians? 
As he may well have changed his opinion after 1751, it 
would seem only just to accept his later utterance. It is 
true that in 1744, when the Acadians at Grand Pre were 
invited by a French force from Cape Breton to take up 
arms against the English, they prayed to be excused. 
They disliked the English, but feared the vengeance that 
might follow the open violation of the neutralit}- they had 
sworn to preserve. But Mr. F. H. Smith, who has quoted 
this instance against the historian Parkman, and who seen-»s 
to regard the expulsion of the Acadians as an act of unjusti- 
fiable cruelty, declares in his history of Nova Scotia that, 
" Even when there was peace, the Acadians were a source 
of perpetual danger to the English colonists." 

If, therefore, we view the question from a political 
standpoint, the English were doubtless justifiable in re- 
moving from Nova Scotia all the inhabitants that refused 
to take an oath of allegiance to the British monarch: it 
was, moreover, a justifiable act to send them where they 
could no longer endanger the safety of the English set- 
tlers. The historians who apologize for the English de- 
clare that as early as 1689 the French meditated a similar 
expulsion of the inhabitants of New York and Albany. 
This plan was conceived at Montreal, and when it had 



26 IN ACADIA. 

been approved by the court of France, the Count of 
Frontenac received the following instructions: "If you 
find among the inhabitants of New York, whether English 
or Dutch, any Catholics on whose fidelity you consider 
you can rely, you may leave them in their habitations, 
after making them take the oath of allegiance to his 
majesty. The officers and principal inhabitants, from 
whom ransoms can be exacted, must be detained in prison. 
Respecting all other inhabitants — men, women and chil- 
dren — His Majesty, Louis XIV, deems it proper that they 
should be put out of the colony and sent to such other 
quarters as shall be considered expedient, either by land 
or sea, together or in divisions, all according as you shall 
find will best secure their dispersion and prevent them, by 
reunion, affording enemies an opportunity to get up ex- 
peditions against that colony." Such was the scheme 
that served as a precedent for the conduct of the English 
in Acadia. Fortunately for America lack of power pre- 
vented its execution. 

If, moreover, we examine the position taken by France 
in regard to the expulsion of the Acadians, we shall be 
forced to believe that it was not considered to be either 
an act of refined cruelty or a political outrage. "Not 
even was it a casus belli on the part of France, " declares 
a recent Canadian historian; " and yet many insignificant 
and trivial grounds as compared therewith are specifically 
mentioned in the subsequent Declaration of War, suffi- 
cient to show that France fully recognized that England 
had a perfect right to treat her own subjects when dis- 
loyal, as she saw fit." 

Such are some of the facts that may be set down in ex- 
tenuation of what otherwise would be looked upon as an 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 27 

act of ruthless barbarity. While, however, these facts 
serve to palliate the harshness of the decree that the 
Acadians must go into exile, they by no means excuse the 
manner in which their expulsion was effected. Here 
there was, at least from our modern point of view, a lack 
of consideration for the material comforts of the exiles, 
and a disregard of their feelings, which will continue to 
merit the heart}" condemnation of posterity. 

In forming our judgment, however, of the event as a 
whole, we must remember that since those autumnal days 
whose beauty has been illuminated by the genius of Long- 
fellow, nearly a century and a half has elapsed, and that 
even in this brief period the world has seen a marked ad- 
vance in the cultivation of that noble virtue which we call 
humanity. Viewed in the present light of this virtue, the 
conduct of the English towards the Acadians mav seem 
unnecessarily harsh and stern — far more so than it appeared 
to the men of that generation. Hostages, it would seem, 
might have been demanded of the Acadians ; some overt 
act of hostility on their part should have been awaited to 
justify an expulsion which approached so nearly to perse- 
cution ; England should have taxed her resources to throw 
a strong force into the province, and thus protected her 
settlers against the encroachments alike of French and 
Acadians, Thus, perhaps, might have been obviated a 
resort to forcible eviction. 

Certainly our days have seen the birth of kinder and 
more humane feelings than ever existed before ; we extend 
our aid and sympathy to the oppressed in all lands. Let 
us hope that the influence of this broad humanity may 
prevent for all future time a recurrence of those sad scenes 
on the coast of Acadia which it is now our task to describe. 



28 IN ACADIA. 

In pursuance of the plan he had adopted, Governor 
Lawrence called upon a number of Acadian deputies, who 
had applied for the restoration of some fire-arms seized by 
the government, to swear an unconditional oath of allegi- 
ance to King George. At first the deputies refused to take 
the oath ; but when they were summoned before the council 
the following morning, and learned that their failure to 
comply would in the eyes of the new governor stamp them 
as rebels, they yielded to intimidation and consented. They 
were told, however, that an oath under compulsion could 
not be accepted. The governor then summoned repre- 
sentative deputies from nearly all parts of the province ; 
but these, trusting to escape the consequences of non- 
compliance as they had been permitted to escape them on 
several other occasions, declared that before taloing the 
oath they must have a written promise of exemption from 
bearing arms against their own people. A meeting of the 
Nova Scotia council was immediately called, and it was 
decided, " that as it had been determined before to send all 
the French inhabitants out of the province if they refused 
to take the oath, nothing now remained to be considered 
but what measures should be taken to send them away and 
where they should be sent to. After mature deliberation 
it was unanimously agreed that to prevent as much as pos- 
sible their attempt to return and molest the settlers that 
may be set down on their lands, it would be most proper 
to send them to be distributed amongst the several colonies 
on the continent of America, and that a sufficient number 
of vessels should be hired with all possible expedition for 
that purpose." 

One of the reasons for this haste, according to Park- 
man, was that the English garrisons were small and at this 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 29 

time there was in Nova Scotia a body of New England 
troops. These troops had been of great service in the 
capture of Beausejour, a French stronghold on the Aca- 
dian isthmus, and as they had been enlisted for only a 
year, the governor determined to take advantage of their 
presence and use them in effecting the expulsion. 

Accordingly Colonel Moncton, who was at Beausejour, 
was ordered to seize all the able-bodied inhabitants of his 
neighborhood; while Winslow, of Massachusetts, with his 
Puritan troops, who " had prayers in camp every day," 
was ordered to march to Grand Pre, just across the penin- 
sula from Halifax. Here he was to follow the example of 
Moncton. Similar orders were sent to the English officers 
at Annapolis and Fort Edward. In the Fall of New 
France, b}' Gerald E. Hart, may be seen a fine portrait 
of Colonel Winslow, of Massachusetts. His fat face, sur- 
mounted by the regulation powdered wig, and his corpu- 
lent figure, seem to betray a character loving ease and 
cheerful surroundings rather than the rough life of the 
soldier. Indeed he has left on record that the task on 
which he was now engaged was a most uncongenial one. 
Still he was acting under the orders of a superior officer, 
and he faithfully obeyed his instructions. Summoning 
the inhabitants of Grand Pre, Mines, and River Canard, 
" both old men and young men, as well as all the lads of 
ten years of age," to meet him at the church on a certain 
day, he stood out before them, and, through the interpre- 
ters, read to them the insti-uctions sent by Lawrence in 
the name of the king: " The part of duty I am now upon 
is very disagreeable to my natural make and temper, as I 
know it must be grievous to you, who are of the same 
species ; but it is not my business to animadvert, but to 



30 IN ACADIA. 

obey such orders as I receive. Therefore without hesita- 
tion I shall deliver you His Majesty's orders and instruc- 
tions, namely: that your lands and tenements, cattle of all 
kinds and live stock of all sorts, are forfeited to the crown ; 
with all of your other effects, saving your money and 
household goods, and you yourselves to be removed from 
this, his province. I am, through His Majesty's goodness, 
directed to allow you liberty to carry off your money and 
household goods, as many as you can without discom- 
moding the vessels you go in. I shall do ever3^thing in 
my power that all these goods be secured to you, and 
that you are not molested in carrying them off; and also 
that whole families shall go in the same vessel, and make 
this remove, which I am sensible must make you a great 
deal of trouble, as easy as His Majesty's service will ad- 
mit; and hope that in whatever part of the world you may 
fall you may be faithful subjects, a peaceable and happy 
people. I must also inform you that it is His Majesty's 
pleasure that you remain in security under the inspection 
and direction of the troops I have the honor to command." 

The blow had at last fallen, and so severe was it that 
its first effect must have been to stun the senses of the 
listening farmers. When they recovered and awoke to 
the true meaning of the words they had heard, they saw 
that resistance was useless, and they bowed their heads in 
submission. 

Elsewhere the English officers were less successful in 
capturing the inhabitants Many took alarm, and escap- 
ing to the woods, took refuge in Canada and in what is 
now the State of Maine. The fate of these refugees, 
some 3500 in all, seems to have excited little sympath}- in 
Canada. The French provincial government is said to 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 31 

have issued to them boiled hides and horseflesh as rations, 
and many of them died of starvation.* 

The whole number secured by the English is put at 
^y88 — men, women and children — out of a population 
amounting to about 9200. 

When after a long delay the transports arrived, an hon- 
est effort seems to have been made to follow the instruc- 
tions of Winslow, that whole families should go in the 
same vessel ; but that many cases of separation occurred 
seems to be admitted by all the historians. Such a fate, 
therefore, might well have overtaken Evangeline and 
Gabriel. Longfellow's immortal lovers. The English 
apologists maintain that such separations were unavoidable 
in view of the fact that members of a family would often 
escape, and on their recapture would necessarily be put 
on board the transport that happened to be sailing at the 
moment. 

The transports were ordered to distribute the Acadians 
among the colonies along the Atlantic coast, and letters 
were sent with them to the governor of each colony, re- 
questing that the immigrants should be received. In order 
that there might be no temptation to return, hundreds of 
houses, with the barns into which had just been garnered the 
newly harvested crops, were burned before the eyes of the 
exiles, while vet the transports lingered in the harbors. 
A description of their grief must be left to the pen of the 
poet. 

When the transports arrived at their respective destina- 
tions, the Acadians, homesick and despairing, found them- 



*In Hart's Fall of New France, a remarkable petition from these exiles to the 
governor of Quebec is quoted. Among other things they speak of their constant 
refusal to obev the English, and ask ivhy they had not hicn led against the English'. 

3 



32 IN ACADIA. 

selves among a people to whom in language and religion 
they were aliens. Such exiles were naturally a burden 
to the colonists, and South Carolina and Georgia con- 
sulted their own feelings in allowing the Acadians to re- 
turn to Nova Scotia whenever an opportunity presented 
itself. 

In Pennsylvania nearly 2000 were landed, and the 
hearts of the Quakers were touched at the sight of their 
misery. In the records of the Pennsylvania Historical 
Society, it is stated that the State government expended 
for the support of these unhappy exiles the sum of 
£7500. The general court of Boston, however, refused 
a landing to some of the transports and ordered them to 
return to HaHfax. It seems to us a bitter piece of iron}^ 
that the Puritans, who had helped to expel the Acadians 
from Nova Scotia, should have been expected to welcome 
them in Massachusetts and provide for their necessities. 

Many of the exiles, failing to win a livelihood in the 
colonies, finally wandered back to their old homes, and 
became the progenitors of those who are found there at the 
present day. Others, after incredible sufferings, pene- 
trated as far south as San Domingo; still others, hearing 
that settlers from beloved France inhabited what is now 
the State of Louisiana, traversed the continent till they 
reached the mighty Mississippi, and, launching their crafts 
on its swift tide, ultimately found safe harbor at New 
Orleans. Here they were joined by refugees from San 
Domingo. Louisiana had just been transferred from the 
French to the Spanish government, but the French were 
still in possession, and the exiles were everywhere kindly 
received. Once more they heard the sweet accents of 
their native tongue, and the religion for which thev had 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 33 

been willing to suffer exile was the religion of their adopted 
country. No mountains gratified their longing for the 
azure-hued ranges of their own Acadia: but this new land, 
in the beauty of its flora and the fertility of its soil, sur- 
passed the meadows of Grand Pre and the far-famed valley 
of Annapolis. 

In New Orleans the Acadians were encouraged to seek 
homes in the beautiful country that is watered by the 
Teche. In their honor the present parish of St. James 
was once called Acadia; and when of late years it 
became necessary to divide the large parish of St. Landry, 
one portion of it received the same name. In this parish 
and the adjoining parish of Vermilion are to be found the 
greatest number of Acadians at the present day. 

Here they have found peace and happiness such as the 
fortune of war would long have denied them in their own 
country. Sweet is the memory of past labors, sings 
Vergil, and such may have been the consolation of 
the Acadian exiles in Louisiana. Sweeter still to the 
descendants of those exiles must it be to know that their 
hard fate moved America's poet-laureate to tune his harp 
to mournful numbers, and that by his song he touched 
the heart of the civilized world. 

John R. Ficklen. 

Note. — The writer wishes to acknowledge his obliga- 
tions to the writings of Professor Alcee Fortier, to the 
Narratives of Parkman, to The Fall of New France, by 
Gerald Hart, and to the History of Acadia in Justin Win- 
sor's History of America. 



II 



OLD ACADIA REVISITED 



(KKOM HADDliCK.) 



I3Y CHARLHS DUDLHY WARNER. 



Jly pii-missioii oj Houghton, MiJJIin A: Co., Publishers, Boslaii. 



(PlJ ^f|j:aJia J^Jopisiiod. 




•' This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneatii it 
Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the 

huntsman? 
Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers, — 
Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands. 
Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven? 
Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed! 
Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October 
Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean. 
Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand Pre." 

— Exm7igeliue. 

h ET us now turn from the sombre stor}' of old Acadian 

I history to a glimpse of its stage of action at the present 
d^y. We are fortunate enough to be able to offer 
this from the photographic pen of that observant traveler, 
Mr. Charles Dudley Warner. The following extract from 
his interesting little volume, entitled " Baddeck," is in- 
serted through the courtesy of the publishers, Messrs. 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

Mr. Warner, after a picturesque description of the 
heroic Madame de la Tour, meanders throu<rh Acadian 
history and geography after the following pleasant 
fashion : 

"As we leave the station at Annapolis, we are obliged 
to put Madame de la Tour out of our minds to make room 
for another woman whose name, and we might say pres- 



38 IN ACADIA. 

ence, tills all the valley before us. So it is that woman 
continues to reign, where she has once got a foothold, 
long after her dear frame has become dust. Evangeline, 
who is as real a personage as Queen Esther, must have 
been a different woman from Madame de la Tour. If 
the latter had lived at Grand Pre, she would, I trust, have 
made it hot for the brutal English who drove the Acadians 
out of their salt-marsh paradise, and have died in her 
heroic shoes rather than float off into poetry. But if it 
should come to the question of marrying the De la Tour 
or the Evangeline, I think no man who was not engaged 
in the peltry trade would hesitate which to choose. At 
any rate, the women who love have more influence in the 
world than the women who fight, and so it happens that 
the sentimental traveler who passes through Port Royal 
without a tear for Madame de la Tour, begins to be in a 
glow of tender longing and regret for Evangeline as soon 
as he enters the valley of the Annapolis river. For my- 
self, I expected to see written over the railway crossings 
the legfend, — 

" ' Look out for Evangeline while the Bell rings.' 

"When one rides into a region of romance he does not 
much notice his speed or his carriage ; but I am obliged 
to say that we were not hurried up the valley, and that the 
cars were not too luxurious for the -plain people, priests, 
clergymen, and belles of the region, who rode in them. 
Evidently the latest fashions had not arrived in the prov- 
inces, and we had an opportunity of stud3nng anew 
those that had long passed away in the States, and of 
remarking how inappropriate a fashion is when it has 
ceased to be the fashion. 



OLD ACADIA REVISITED. 



39 



"The river becomes small shortly after we leave Annap- 
olis and before we reach Paradise. At this station of 
happy appellation we looked for the satirist who named it, 
but he has probably sold out and removed. If the effect 
of wit is produced by the sudden recognition of a remote 
resemblance, there was nothing witty in the naming of 
this station. Indeed, we looked in vain for the ' garden * 
appearance of the valley. There was nothing generous 
in the small meadows or the thin orchards ; and if large 
trees ever grew on the bordering hills, they have given 
place to rather stunted evergreens ; the scraggy firs and 
balsams, in fact, possess Nova Scotia generally as we saw 







VILLACJE OF GRAXD PRK. 



it — and there is nothing more uninteresting and wearisome 
than larce tracts of these woods. We are bound to believe 
that Nova Scotia has somewhere, or had, great pines and 
hemlocks that murmur, but we were not blessed with the 
sight of them. SHghtly picturesque this valley is with its 
winding river and high hills guarding it, and perhaps a 
person would enjoy a foot-tramp down it; but I think he 



40 IN ACADIA. 

would find little peculiar or interesting after he left the 
neighborhood of the Basin of Minas. 

" Before we reached Wolfville we came in sight of this 
basin and some of the estuaries and streams that run into 
it; that is, when the tide goes out; but they are only 
muddy ditches half the time. The Acadia College was 
pointed out to us at Wolfville by a person who said that it 
is a feeble institution, a remark we were sorry to hear of 
a place described as ' one of the foremost seats of learning 
in the province/ But our regret was at once extinguished 
by the announcement that the next station was Grand Pre ! 
We were within three miles of the most poetic place in 
North America. 

"There was on the train a 3^oung man from Boston, who 
said that he was born in Grand Pre. It seemed impossible 
that we should actually be near a person so felicitously 
born. He had a justifiable pride in the fact, as well as in 
the bride by his side, whom he was taking to see for the 
first time his old home. His local information, imparted 
to her, overflowed upon us ; and when he found that we 
had read ' Evangeline,' his delight in makingus acquainted 
with the scene of that poem was pleasant to see. The vil- 
lage of Grand Pre is a mile from the station ; and perhaps 
the reader would like to know exactly what the traveler, 
hastening on to Baddeck, can see of the famous locality. 

"We looked over a well-grassed meadow, seamed here 
and there by beds of streams left bare by the receding 
tide, to a gentle swell in the ground upon v/hich is a not 
heavy forest growth. The trees partly conceal the street 
of Grand Pre, which is only a road bordered by common 
houses. Beyond is the Basin of Minas, with its sedgy 
shore, its dreary flats; and beyond that projects a bold 



OLD ACADIA REVISITED. 41 

headland, standing perpendicular against the sk\'. This 
is the Cape Blomedon, and it gives a certain dignity to 
the picture. 

"The old Normand}' picturesquenesa^as departed from 
the village of Grand Pre. Yankee settlers, we w^ere told, 
possess it now. and there are no descendants of the 
French Acadians in this valley. I believe that Mr. Coz- 
zens found some of them in humble circumstances in a 
villaiie on the other coast, not far from Halifax, and it is 
there, probably, that the 

*■' ' Maidens still wear their Norman caps and their kirtles of homespun, 
And by the evening fire repeat Evangeline's story — 
While from its rocky caverns the deep-voiced, neighboring ocean 
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.' 

"At anv rate there is nothing here now except a faint tra- 
dition of the French x\cadians : and the sentimental trav- 
eler who laments that they were driven out, and not left 
behind their dikes to rear their flocks, and cultivate the 
rural virtues, and live in the simplicity of ignorance, will 
temper his sadness by the reflection that it is to the expul- 
sion he owes ' Evanjjeline ' and the luxurv of his roman- 
tic grief. So that if the traveler is honest and examines 
his own soul faithfully he will not know what state of mind 
to cherish as he passes through this region of sorrow. 

" Our eves lingered as long as possible and with all 
eagerness upon these meadows and marshes which the 
poet has made immortal, and we regretted that inexorable 
Baddeck would not permit us to be pilgrims for a day in 
this Acadian land." 



Ill 



THE ACADIAN LAND 



BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 



From Harper^ s Magazine, Copyright 1887, hy Harper tt Bro. 



^pio ^Hcadian ]^and. 



-=^®\-»-(@^~- 



N introducing the following passag-es from Mr. Charles 
(pcL-y^ Diidlev Warner's article, "The Acadian Land," 
which was published in the February, 1887, number 
of Harper's Magazine, it may be premised that the route 
to this region is by the Southern Pacific Railroad, from 
New Orleans to New Iberia, which is situated on the Bayou 
Teche, 125 miles to the west. The chief seat of the Aca- 
dians is found on and near the Rayovi 
Teche, though there are consider- 
able settlements in the lower river 
parishes, in St. Landry and Avoy- 
elles parishes and in other parts of 
Southern Louisiana. It is impossi- 
ble in the extracts which we are 
kindly permitted b\' the publishers 
to use to do justice to Mr. Warner's 

sympathetic and photographic pictures of the Acadian 
land and people. But perhaps enough is given to stinui- 
late curiosity and awaken interest in them. 

*' The region south and west of the Bayou Teche, a 
vast plain cut by innumerable small bayous and streams, 
which have mostly a connection with the Bay of Cote 
Blanche and Vermilion Bay, is the home of the Nova 
Scotia Acadians. 




■*«^»<^': 



46 IN ACADIA. 

"The Acadians in 1755 made a good exchange, little as 
they thought so at the time, of bleak Nova Scotia for these 
sunny, genial and fertile lands. They came into a land 
and a climate suited to their idiosyncrasies, and which 
have enabled them to preserve their primitive traits. In a 
comparative isolation from the disturbing current of modern 
life, they have preserved the habits and customs of the 
eighteenth century. 

"If the Acadians can anywhere be seen in the pros- 
perity of their primitive simplicity, I fancy it is in the 
parish of Vermilion, in the vicinity of Abbeville and on 
the Bayou Tigre. Here, among the intricate bayous that 
are their highways and supply them with the poorer sort 
of fish, and the fair meadows on which their cattle pas- 
ture, and where they grow nearly everything their simple 
habits require, they have for over a century enjoyed a 
quiet existence, practically undisturbed by the agitations 
of modern life, ignorant of its progress. History makes 
their departure from the comparatively bleak meadows of 
Grand Pre a cruel hardship, if a political necessity. But 
they made a very fortunate exchange. Nowhere else on 
the continent could they so well have preserved their 
primitive habits, or found climate and soil so suited to 
their humor. 

" To reach the heart of this abode of contented and per- 
haps wise ignorance we took boats early one morning at 
Petite Anse Island, while the dew was still heavy and the 
birds were at matins, and rowed down the Petite x\nse 
Bayou. 



THE A CA DIA N L A ND. 



49 



" In the fresh morning, with the salt air, it was a voyage 
of delight. Mullet were jumping in the glassy stream, 
perhaps disturbed by the gar-tish, and alligators lazily slid 
from the reedy banks into the water at our approach. All 
the marsh was gay with flowers, vast patches of 
the blue -fteiir de lis intermingled with the ex- 
quisite white spider-lily, nodding in clusters on 
long stalks; an amaryllis (pancratium), its pure 
half-disk fringed with delicate white filaments. 
The air was vocal with the notes of birds, the 
nonpareil and the meadow-lark, and most con- 
spicuous of all the handsome boat-tail grackle, 
a blackbird, which alighted on the slender dead 
reeds that swayed with his weight as he poured 
forth his song. Sometimes the bayou narrowed 
so that it was impossible to row with the oars, 
and poling was resorted to, and the current w^as 
swift and strong. At such passes we saw only 
the banks with nodding flowers, and the reeds, 
with the blackbirds singing, against the sky. Again we 
emerged into placid reaches overhung by gigantic live- 
oaks and fringed with cypress. It was enchanting." 




The following is Mr. Warner's sketch of the little set- 
tlement on Bayou Tigre : 

" This is a purely domestic and patriarchal community, 
where there are no books to bring in agitating doubts, and 
few newspapers to disquiet the nerves. The only matter 
of politics broached was in regard to an appropriation by 
Congress to improve a cut-off between two bayous. So far 
as I could learn, the most intelligent of these people had 
4 



50 IN ACADIA. 

no other interest in or concern about the government. 
There is a neighborhood school where Enghsh is taught, 
but no church nearer than Abbeville, six miles away. I 
should not describe the population as fanatically religious, 
nor a church-going one except on special days. But by all 
accounts it is moral, orderly, sociable, fond of dancing, 
thrifty, and conservative. 

" The Acadians are fond of their homes. It is not the 
fashion for the young people to go away to better their 
condition. Few 3^oung men have ever been as far from 
home as New Orleans ; they marry young, and settle down 
near the homestead. 

********* 

" The men whom we saw were most of them fine ath- 
letic fellows, with honest, dark, sun-browned faces; some 
of the children were very prett}^, but the women usually 
showed the effects of isolation and toil, and had the com- 
mon plainness of French peasants. They are a self-sup- 
porting community, raise their own cotton, corn and 
sugar, and for the most part manufacture their own clothes 
and articles of household use. Some of the cotton jeans, 
striped with blue, indigo-dyed, made into garments for 
men and women, and the blankets, plain yellow (from the 
native nankeen cotton), curiously clouded, are very pretty 
and serviceable. Further than that their habits of living 
are simple and their ways primitive, I saw few eccentrici- 
ties. The peculiarity of this community is in its freedom 
from all the hurry and wony and information of modern 

life. 

********* 

" We went home gayly and more swiftly, current and 
tide with us, though a little pensive, perhaps, with too 



THE A CA DIA N L A ND. 



51 



much pleasure and the sunset effects on the wide marshes 
through which we vo^^aged. 

"■ When we landed and climbed the hill, and from tlie 
rose-embowered veranda looked back over the strange 
land we had sailed through, away to Bavou Tigre, where 
the red sun was setting, w^e felt that we had been in a 
country that is not of this world." 




I¥ 



THE ACADIANS OF LOUISIANA. 



FROM ARTICLE BY ALCEE FORTIER. 



Xl^»3 ^^'adiai^s of ]^oiiisiana. 



-'^@^-"-^§^- 



" Over the joyous feast the sudden darkness descended. 

All was silent without, and, illumining the landscape with silver. 
Fair rose the dewy moon and the myriad stars; but within doors. 
Brighter than these, shone the faces of friends in the glimmering 

lamplight. 
Then from his station aloft at the head of the table, the herdsman 
Poured forth his heart and his wine together in endless profusion. 
Lighting his pipe, that was filled with sweet Natchitoches tobacco. 



Then there were voices heard at the door, and footsteps approach- 
ing 
Sounded upon the stairs, and the floor of the breezy veranda. 
It was the neighboring Creoles and small Acadian planters, 
Who had been summoned all to the house of Basil the herdsman. 
Merry the meeting was of ancient comrades and neighbors: 
Friend clasped friend in his arms; and they who before were as 

strangers. 
Meeting in exile, became straightway as friends to each other. 
Drawn by the gentle bond of a common country together. 
But in the neighboring hall a strain of music, proceeding 
From the accordant strings of Michael's melodious fiddle, 
Broke up all further speech. Away, like children delighted. 
All things forgotten beside, they gave themselves to the madden- 
ing 
Whirl of the dizzy dance, as it swept and swayed to the music, 
Dreamlike, with beaming eyes and the rush of fluttering garments." 

— Evati'sclinc. 



56 



IN ACADIA. 



^mN his " History of Louisiana" Mr. Gayarre says: " Be- 
icl^\ tween the ist of January and the 13th of May, 1765, 
about 650 Acadians had arrived at New Orleans, 
and from that town had been sent to form settlements in 
Attakapas and Opelousas under the command of Andry." 
Many others of the unfortunate exiles came to Louisiana, 
some. from the Antilles, but the greater part, in rude boats 
built by themselves, floated down the streams 
flowing into the Mississippi and reached New 
Orleans, where they expected to find the 
white banner of France. Two 
years before, however, the infa- 
mous treaty of Paris had been 
signed, and Louisiana now be- 
longed to Spain. The Spaniards 
had not yet taken possession of the 
colony, and the French officials re- 
ceived most kindly the unhappy strangers. 
There the}^ were on the levee of New Orleans 
with their wives and children, helpless, des- 
titute, possessing only a few articles of wearing 
apparel, they who a few years before were 
prosperous farmers with comfortable homes 
and fertile fields. But at last their journey 
was ended and they were again to find a home 
and lands much more fertile than those which 
the}^ had left. About fifty miles above New 
Orleans the Acadians gave their name to one of the 
parishes of Louisiana, and the Acadian coast, now called 
St. James, was one of the first settlements made by the 
exiles. Later they spread all along the Mississippi river 




THE ACADIANS OF LOUISIANA. 57 

and the adjoinin*j^ bayous, and their descendants are 
to be found in every parish of lower Louisiana. They 
form an important and useful part of our population, 
although many of them are as simple and ignorant as their 
ancestors of 1755. They are, however, generally honest 
and laborious, deeply religious and very much attached 
to the idiom of their fathers. Many rose to the highest 
position in the State and we have among us to-dav elegant 
ladies and cultivated gentlemen belonging to the Acadian 
race. They are proud of their ancestors, and justly so, 
because if the latter were peasants, they were, at the same 
time, martyrs to their religious and patriotic feelings. If 
there ever was any prejudice against the Acadians among 
the descendants of the early colonists, it existed onlv 
among narrow-minded people and was not manifest. 

Having thought of the Acadians and their dialect as an 
interesting subject to study, I determined to pay a visit to 
the Attakapas country made classic by the genius of Long- 
fellow. In the beginning of last September I left New 
Orleans at 7:30 a. m. by the Southern Pacific Railroad 
and arrived at St. Mary parish after a journey of five 
hours. Along the route the train passed through fields of 
tall sugar cane, yellow corn and golden rice. Every now 
and then we crossed a ba3^ou, or a marsh, or a forest. 
Shortly after leaving the city we reached " Bayou des 
AUemands," named for the German settlers who had been 
sent to America by the famous John Law\ In the middle 
of the bayou is an island covered with trees and briers, on 
which is a hut which serves as a hunting lodge for the 
sportsmen, whose canoes for duck-shooting are to be seen 
everywhere. Trees grow to the edge of the water of all 
our bayous and render the smallest stream picturesque. 



58 IN ACADIA. 

After passing another beautiful stream, Bayou Boeuf, 
we see a few of the Indian mounds which are so interest- 
ing to the archfEologist and the ethnologist, and at Morgan 
City we cross the wide and turbid Atchafalaya, the rival 
of the Mississippi, and which threatens, if not curbed by 
artificial means, to divert the waters of the great river 
from its present channel. 

A few miles after passing Morgan City I leave the train 
and am soon on a plantation situated on both sides of the 
T'eche. After dinner I take my little nephews with me 
and we 2:0 to the bavou. There is in front of the house 
a drawbridge, which is opened every time a boat or raft 
passes. We sit on the bridge and I look on the waters 
flowing beneath and I can hardly see the direction of the 
current. A few months before the bayou had been a tor- 
rent overflowing its left bank. St. Mary parish is one 
of the most prosperous in Louisiana and everywhere there 
are central sugar factories with the most modern appli- 
ances, the powerful mills, or the diffusion process, and 
through this busy scene of progress flow the tranquil 
waters of the Teche, its banks covered with moss-grown 
live-oaks. Here is the same spectacle which the poet has 
so admirably described. It is civilization now, but side 
by side wuth the primeval forest. Under the stately oaks 
the children run and play w^hile I lie upon the grass and 
meditate. My thoughts return to the past, and I imagine 
what must have been the feelings of the Acadians when 
they saw for the first time in 1765 the beautiful Attakapas 
country. 

Not far from the plantation where I visited is a village 
called Charenton. It is but a hamlet, but it possesses a 
church and a convent of nuns. The good sisters of St. 



THE ACADIANS OF LOUISIANA. 59 

Joseph have established a school for girls which does 
great good to the neighborhood. The mother superior, 
a very agreeable and intelligent lady, is a descendant of 
the Acadians. Very near the village is a settlement of 
Indians. I observed them with curiosity, as they are the 
sole remnant of the Attakapas tribe, the fierce man-eaters. 
Some of the squaws are handsome, and the men have the 
real Indian type, although I am told that the tribe is 
rapidly disappearing and mingling with the negroes. 
The women make very pretty reed cane baskets, quite 
different in design from those which the Choctaws sell at 
the French market in New Orleans; the men cultivate a 
little patch of ground and sell fish and game. One hun- 
dred years ago the Indians were numerous on the Teche ; 
they seem to have melted away without being molested. 
The mere contact of civilization was sufficient to cause 
them to vanish. It seems to have been an inevitable des- 
tiny, and we may say in the words of Victor Hugo : 

''La chose simplement d'elle-meme arriva 
Comme hi niiit se tait lorsque le jour s'en va." 

Two miles from Charenton is the Grand Lac, which I 
desired very much to see, so one morning at daybreak I 
started in a light buggy with the oldest of my nephews, a 
Sophomore of Tulane University. There is in realitv no 
route leading to the lake ; we had to pass for several miles 
through a forest on the bank of the Teche and it gave me 
great pleasure to see the bayou where it appeared most 
wild. After a ride of two hours we left the shore of the 
Teche and turning toward the interior we soon arrived at 
the lake. I felt delighted at the sight; before us stretched 
the blue waters, which a light breeze caused to undulate 



60 IN ACADIA. 

gently, and in the distance could be seen the sails of two 
schooners which seemed to be the wings of marine birds 
skimming- the surface of the waves. All around the lake 
is a forest, and on the trees we could see the cardinal bird 
with his scarlet robe, the jay-bird with his silver and blue 
jacket, the blackbird with his golden epaulets, and what 
pleased me most, numberless mocking-birds, those admir- 
able songsters, which the impudent English sparrow is 
rapidly driving away from our Southern land. 

While in St. Mary I had occasion to visit a number of 
planters, who received me very kindly and who did all in 
their power to help me in my work. They introduced 
me to some Acadians and communicated to me a few 
characteristic expressions of the Acadian language. I 
was, however, anxious to see St. Martinsville, and after 
promising to return to St. Mary, I took the train and went 
to the oldest town on the Teche. It was with real pleas- 
ure that I started on my journey; I had never gone to that 
part of Louisiana before and everything was new to me. 
I passed on my way Jeanerette and New Iberia in Iberia 
parish. They are both thriving towns, the latter espe- 
cially, on account of its proximity to the celebrated salt 
mines on Avery's Island. It has a handsome Catholic 
church, an elegant public high school and some beautiful 
private residences. The following extract from Judge 
Martin's " History of Louisiana " gives a very good idea 
of the geography of the Teche country : 

" The Teche has its source in the prairies, in the upper 
part of the settlements of Opelousas, and, during the season 
of high water, flows partially into the Courtableau. As it 
enters the settlements of Attakapas, it receives from the 
right side Bayou Fuselier, which Bayou Bourbeux connects 



THE ACADIAXS OF LOUISIANA. 61 

with Vermilion river. A little more than twenty miles 
farther, it passes before the town of St. Martinsville and 
reaches, hfteen miles after, the spot on which the Span- 
iards, soon after the cession, made a vain attempt to 
establish a city, to which the name of New Iberia was 
destined ; twenty miles from the mouth of the Teche is 
the town of Franklin." 

I may add here that the Teche becomes a noble river 
shortly before mingling its waters with those of the rapid 
Atchafalaya. From Jeanerette to New Iberia the fields 
presented the same beautiful crops of cane, rice and corn 
which I had seen along the route from New Orleans, but 
after passing New Iberia, cotton begins to be seen, and I 
noticed in one patch of ground the curious fact of our 
four great staples growing side by side — cane, cotton, rice 
and corn. Such is the wonderful fertility of our soil. 

St. Martinsville does not lie on the Southern Pacific 
Railroad and it is only lately that it has been connected 
with the main line by a branch leading to the Teche. 
This may account for the stagnation of business in the 
town, which before the war was very prosperous. I had 
letters of introduction to several distinguished gentlemen, 
but I saw on arriving in that Creole town that a Creole 
needed no credentials to be well received. I found mv- 
self among friends, I may say among relations, as all the 
persons I met knew my family and I knew theirs. French 
is essentially the language of the inhabitants and it is well 
spoken by the educated class. The latter speak English 
also, but the lower class speak the Acadian French mixed 
with the Creole patois and a little English. In the interior 
settlements i^aii hiro-c) little or no English at all is spoken, 
and at Breaux Bridge, in St. Martin parish, and in the ad- 



62 IN ACADIA. 

joining parish of Lafayette, French is taught together with 
English in the public schools. Although we desire to see 
ever}^ child in Louisiana speak English we wish every one 
to speak French also, and I was very glad to see how the 
people of St. Martin are attached to their French. 
Among those who have done the most to encourage the 
study of French in his parish is Mr. Felix Voorhies, a 
descendant, on his mother's side, of an old Acadian family. 
He has established a dramatic society, for which he has 
written several charming comedies, and although he 
writes elegant French he is perfectly familiar with the 
Acadian dialect. I am deeply indebted to him for the in- 
terest he took in my work and the help he kindly gave 
me. 

There is but one hotel in St. Martinsville ; it is a large 
house with a wide gallery and massive brick columns. 
Everything is as in ante-bellum days ; no register awaits 
the names of the guests, and the owner seems to have im- 
plicit confidence in the honest}^ of his boarders. 

After dinner I took a walk over the town, and never 
have I seen a more quiet and orderly place and one where 
there are so few bar-rooms. The life in that old Creole 
town reminded me of autrefois, as depicted to me many 
times by my aged friends. There was not much anima- 
tion in business, but order and decency prevailed every- 
where and the people were uniformly affable and polite. 
I spent the evening very pleasantly with m}- host, his wife 
and his grandmother, conversing with the old lady about 
the past. 

I awoke very early the next morning, and on opening 
the window of my room I saw a pretty sight: the bayou 
was just beneath, its waters green with water plants and 



THE ACADIANS OF LOUISIANA. 63 

rushes, and in the distance a prairie, above which was 
rising resplendent a September sun. A knock was heard 
at the door, and answering it I found a Httle negro girl 
bringing me a cup of real Creole coffee. 

At a short distance from the hotel is the church, on the 
green before which stands the statue of the last curate, 
Father Jan, who died an octogenarian, beloved by his 
parishioners. The present priest, Father Langlois, is a 
botanist of great merit who has made important discov- 
eries in the flora of Louisiana. He is a corresponding 
member of I'Athenee Louisianais, and I determined to 
pav him a visit. He received me very kindly and showed 
me his admirable botanical collections. I asked his per- 
mission to look over the church register, and on turning 
to the vear 1765 I saw the record of the flrst child born of 
Acadian parents in St. Martin, probably the iirst born in 
Louisiana. I give here the exact copy, with the original 
spelling and punctuation as per certified copy kindly made 
for me bv TAbbe Langlois: 

'* Lan mille Sept cent soixante cinq le onze may je p'l'e 

capucin Missionaire apostolique cure de la n^He accadie 

soussigne, ay IJaptisee avec les les ceremonies ordinaires 

de It'glise mariifuerite anne nee la veille de legitime 

obiit Mariage d'oli\ ier thibaudaut et de magdelaine Rroussard 

i6fjusdem g^^ pere et mere le parrain a este Rene trahan, et la Mar- 

f_ ^g-in raine Mane thibaudaut qui ont declare ne sa\oir signer de 

triincois ce requis selon I'ordonnance aux attakapas les jours et an 

, que dessus 

(signe) f. jean francois c. cure 
^^^^^^^^^~ Masse 

Anoyu" 

Olivier Thibaudaut, the father of the little girl born in 
1765, was a descendant of the celebrated meunier Thi- 
baudaux, seigneur de Chipody in Acadia in Poutrincourt's 
time. The family is exceedingly numerous in Louisiana 
and they have given their name to one of our towns on 



64 



IN ACADIA. 



Bayou Lafourche. One of the Thibodaux was president 
of the Senate in 1824, and was acting governor for a few 
weeks, after the resignation of Governor Robertson. The 
Broussards, the family of Olivier Thibaudaut's wife, are 
also very numerous in the State. Thibodaux, Broussard, 
Landry, Leblanc and Bourgeois are the largest families 
in Louisiana of Acadian descent. 

In the register of St. Martin church I saw also the name 
of a distinguished Louisianian, a professor in the Orato- 
rian order in France and curate of St. Martin for many 
years. Etienne Viel translated in beautiful Latin verse 
the twenty-four books of Fenelon's " Telemaque." Lou- 
isiana may well be proud of a writer of whom Bar- 
thelemy, the author of the " Nemesis," has said: 

"Veil, qui de Fenelon virgilisa la prose." 

St. Martinsville was the home of a true hero, Alcibiade 
DeBlanc, ex-justice of our Supreme Court. Not far from 
the town in Lafayette parish lived another true 
and chivalric Louisianian, Alexandre Mouton, 
ex-cjovernor and United States senator, who was 
the son of an Acadian exile. He died lately at a 
very advanced age, and Louisiana could but 
bless the English for sending her a race that 
could produce such men as the 
governor and his son, the valiant 
general who fell a victor at Mans- 
field. 

The eminent men that have arisen 

amoniT the Acadians in Louisiana 

show what good elements there are in that race, but 

unfortunately, they are, as a rule, lacking in ambition. 

They are laborious, but they appear to be satisfied if, by 




l^HE ACADIANS OF LOUISIANA. 65 

cultivating their patch of ground witli their sons, they 
mana<re to live with a little comfort. The mother and 
dau<rhters attend to the household duties and weave that 
excellent fabric called coionuade. The greatest defect of 
the Acadians is the little interest they take in education ; 
a great manv are completely illiterate. As the public 
school system progresses, education will spread gradually 
among them, and being an intelligent race they will produce 
many men like Alexandre Mouton. Education will, of 
course, destroy their dialect, so that the work of studying 
their peculiar customs and language must not be long 
delayed. 

Having heard that every Saturday evening there was 
a ball in the prairie, I requested one of mv friends to 
take me to see one. We arrived at 8 o'clock, but already 
the ball had begun. In the yard were vehicles of all sorts, 
but three-mule carts were most numerous. The ball room 
was a large hall with galleries all around it. When we 
entered it was crowded with persons dancing to the music 
of three fiddles. I was astonished to see that nothing was 
asked for entrance, but I was told that an}- white person 
decently dressed could come in. The man giving the 
entertainment derived his profits from the sale of refresh- 
ments. My friend, a wealth}- young planter born in the 
neighborhood, introduced me to manv persons and I had a 
good chance to hear the Acadian dialect, as everybody 
there belonged to the Acadian race. I asked a pleasant 
lookin<^man: " Votre fille est-elle ici?" He corrected me 
by replying : ' ' Oui , ma demoiselle est la . " However, he did 
not say mes messieurs for his sons but spoke of them as uies 
garcons, although he showed me his dame. We went 
together to the refreshment room, where were beer and 
5 



66 IN ACADIA. 

lemonade, but I observed that the favorite drink was black 
coffee, which indeed was excellent. At midnight supper 
was served: it was chicken gombo with rice, the national 
Creole dish. 

Most of the men appeared uncouth and awkward, but 
the girls were really charming. They were elegant, well 
dressed and exceedingly handsome. They had large and 
soft black e3'es and beautiful black hair. Seeing how well 
they looked I was astonished and grieved to hear that 
probably very few of them could read or write. On listen- 
ing to the conversation I could easily see that they had no 
education. French was spoken b}" all, but occasionalh' 
English was heard. 

After supper my friend asked me if I wanted to see le 
■pare mix pefits. I followed him without knowing what 
he meant, and he took me to a room adjoining the dancing 
hall, where I saw a number of little children thrown on a 
bed and sleeping. The mothers who accompanied their 
daughters had left the little ones in the pare aux petils be- 
fore passing to the dancing room, where I saw them the 
whole evenintj assembled too;ether in one corner of the 
hall and watching over their daughters. Le pare aux 
petils interested me very much, but I found the gambling 
room stranger still. There were about a dozen men at a 
table pla3ung cards. One lamp suspended from the ceiling 
threw a dim light upon the pla3^ers, who appeared at first 
sight very wild, with their broad-brimmed felt hats on 
their heads and their long untrimmed sunburnt faces. 
There was, however, a kindl}* expression on ever}- face, 
and ever3'thing was so quiet that I saw that the men were 
not professional gamblers. I saw the latter a little later, 
in a barn near b3' where the3' had taken refuge. About 



THE AC AD I A NS OF LOUISIANA. 69 

half a dozen men, playing on a rough board by the light 
of two candles. I understood that these were the black 
sheep of the crowd, and we merely cast a glance at them, 

I was desirous to see the end of the ball, but having 
been told that the break-up would only take place at 
4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, we went away at one 
o'clock. I was well pleased with my evening, and I ad- 
mired the perfect order that reigned, considering that it 
was a public affair and open to all who wished to come, 
without any entrance fee. My friend told me that when 
the dance was over the musicians would rise, and, going 
out in the vard, would fire several pistol shots in the air. 
crving out at the same time: Ic hal est fiiii . 

The names of the children in Acadian families are quite 
as strange as the old biblical names among the early Puri- 
tans, but much more harmonious. For instance, in one 
family the bov was called Duradon, and his five sisters 
answered to the names of Elfige, Envone, Meridie. 
Ozeina and Fronie. A father who had a musical ear 
called his sons Valmir, Valmore, Valsin, Valcour and 
Valerien, while another, with a tincture of the classics, 
called his boy Deus and his daughter Deussa. 

All the Acadians are great riders, and they and their 
little ponies never seem to be tired. They often have ex- 
citing races. Living is very cheap in the prairie and the 
small farmers produce on their farms almost everything 
they use. At the stores thev exchange eggs and hens for 
city goods. 

Several farmers in the prairie still have sugar houses 
with the old-fashioned mill, three perpendicular rollers 
turned by mules or horses. They have some means, but 
are so much attached to the old ways that they will not 



70 IN ACADIA. 

change. It will not be long, however, before the younger 
generation replaces the antiquated mill with the wonder- 
ful modern inventions The Acadians are an intelligent, 
peaceful and honest population; they are beginning to 
improve — indeed many of them, as already stated, have 
been distinguished, but as 3"et too many are without edu- 
cation. Let all Louisianians take to heart the cause of 
education and make a crusade against ignorance in our 
country parishes ! 

Before leaving the prairie I took advantage of my prox- 
imity to the Gulf to pay a visit to Cote Blanche. The 
coast of Louisiana is flat, but in the Attakapas country 
five islands or elevations break the monotony. These are 
rugged and abrupt and present some beautiful scenes. A 
few miles from the prairie is a forest called Cypremort; it 
is being cleared, and the land is admirably adapted to 
sugar cane. The road leading to Cote Blanche passes 
for three miles through the forest and along Cypremort 
Bayou, which is so shallow that large trees grow in it and 
the water merely trickles around them. On leaving the 
wood we enter on a trembling prairie over which a road 
has been built, and we soon reach Cote Blanche. It is 
called an island, because on one side is the Gulf and on 
the other is the trembling prairie. We ascended a bluff 
about one hundred feet high and beheld an enchanting 
scene. In the rear was the wood which we had just left 
stretching like a curtain around the prairie, to the right 
and to the left were a number of hills, one of which was 
one hundred and fifty-seven feet high, covered with tall 
cane waving its green lances in the air, while in front of 
us stood the sugar house with large brick chimneys, the 
white house of the owner of the place, the small cottages 



THE ACADIANS OF LOUISIANA. 71 

of the ne<^roes on both sides of a w ide road, and a Httle 
farther the bkie waters of the Gulf. I approached the 
edge of the bluff, and as I looked at the waves dashing 
against the shore and at the sun slowly setting in a cloud- 
less sky, I exclaimed: " Lawrence, destroyer of the 
Acadian homes, your cruelty has failed. This beautiful 
country was awaiting your victims. We have here no 
Bay of Fundy with its immense tides, no rocks, no snow, 
but we have a land picturesque and wonderfully fertile, a 
land where men are free; our Louisiana is better than your 
Acadia I"' 




¥ 



THE ACADIANS OF ROMANCE, 



FROM "EVANGELINE," 
BY HENRY W. LONGFELLOW 



The J|cadiai]s of ||ornanco. 



_^^fN the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas, 
(Oc^!\ Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-Pre 
Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretched to 
the eastward, 

Giving the village its name, and pasture to flocks without 
number. 

Dikes, that the hands of the farmers had raised with labor 
incessant, 

Shut out the turbulent tides ; but at stated seasons the flood- 
gates 

Opened and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er the 
meadows. 

West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards and 
cornfields 

Spreading afar and unfenced o'er the plain; and away to 
the northward 

Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the 
mountains 

Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty 
Atlantic 

Looked on the happy valley, but ne'er from their station 
descended. 

There, in the midst of its farms, reposed the Acadian vil- 
lage. 



76 IN ACADIA. 

Thus dwelt together in love these simple Acadian 
farmers, — 

Dwelt in the love of God and of man. Alike were they 
free from 

Fear, that reigns with the tyrant, and envy, the vice of 
republics. 

Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to their 
windows; 

But their dwellings were open as day and the hearts of the 
owners; 

There the richest was poor, and the poorest lived in abun- 
dance. 

Somewhat apart from the village, and nearer the Basin of 

Minas, 
Benedict Belief ontaine, the wealthiest farmer of Grand- 

Pre, 
Dwelt on his goodly acres; and with him, directing his 

household. 
Gentle Evangeline lived, his child, and the pride of the 

village. 

Thus, at peace with God and the world, the farmer of 

Grand Pre 
Lived on his sunny farm, and Evangeline governed his 

household. 
Many a youth, as he knelt in the church and opened his 

missal, 
Fixed his eyes upon her as the saint of his deepest 

devotion. 



THE ACADIANS OF ROMANCE. 77 

I5iit among all who came youn<r Gabriel only was wel- 
come : 
Gabriel Lajeunesse, the son of Basil the blacksmith. 
Who was a mighty man in the village, and honored of all 
men. 



He was a valiant 3-outh, and his face, like the face of the 
morniniT, 

Gladdened the earth with its light, and ripened thought 

into action. 
She was a woman now, with the heart and hopes of a 

woman. 



■y >■"■- 







-^^;sA:'\:"^- 













WILLOW ox SITK OK BASII.'s FORfJE. 

''Sunshine of Saint Eulalie " was she called; for that 

was the sunshine 
Which, as the farmers believed, would load their orchards 

with apples; 



78 IN ACADIA. 

She too would bring to her husband's house delight and 
abundance, 

Filling it full of love and the ruddy faces of children. 

Soon with a soundless step the foot of Evangeline fol- 
lowed. 

Up the staircase moved a luminous space in the dark- 
ness, 

Lighted less by the lamp than the shining face of the 
maiden. 

Silent she passed through the hall, and entered the door 
of her chamber. 

Simple that chamber was, with its curtains of white, and 
its clothes-press 

Ample and high, on whose spacious shelves were carefully 
folded 

Linen and woollen stuffs, by the hand of Evangeline 
woven. 

This was the precious^ dower she would bring to her hus- 
band in marriage. 

Better than flocks and herds, being proofs of her skill as 
a housewife. 
********* 

Pleasantly rose next morn the sun on the village of Grand 

Pre; 
Pleasantly gleamed in the soft, sweet air the Basin of 

Minas. 

****** *** 

Every house was an inn, where all were welcomed and 

feasted ; 
For with this simple people, who lived like brothers 

together, 



THE ACADIANS OF ROMANCE. 79 

All things were held in common, and what one had was 
another's. 

Yet under Benedict's roof hospitalit^' seemed more abun- 
dant: 

For Evan«2^eline stood among the guests of her father; 

Bright was her face with smiles, and words of welcome 
and gladness 

Fell from her beautiful lips, and blessed the cup as she 
gave it. 

Fairest of all the maids w^as Evangeline, Benedict's 
daughter I 

Noblest of all the youths was Gabriel, son of the black- 
smith I 
********* 

So passed the morning aw^a}'. And lo I with a summons 

sonorous 
Sounded the bell from its tower, and over the meadow's a 

drum beat. 
Thronged ere long was the church with men. Without 

in the church yard 
Waited the w'omen. They stood by the graves, and hung 

on the headstones 
Garlands of autumn leaves and evergreens fresh from the 

forest. 
Then came the guard from the ships, and marching 

proudly among them 
Entered the sacred portal. With loud and dissonant 

clangor 
Echoed the sound of their brazen drums from ceiling and 

casement — 
Echoed a moment onh', and slowly the ponderous portal 



80 IN ACADIA. 

Closed, and in silence the crowd awaited the will of the 
soldiers. 

Then uprose their commander, and spake from the steps 
of the altar, 

Holding aloft in his hands, with its seals, the royal com- 
mission, 

" You are convened this day," he said, " by his Majesty's 
orders. 

Clement and kind has be been ; but how you have an- 
swered his kindness 

Let your own hearts reply I To my natural make and my 
temper 

Painful the task is I do, which to you I know must be 
grievous. 

Yet must I bow and obey, and deliver the will of our 
monarch : 

Namely, that all your lands, and dwellings, and cattle of 
all kinds 

Forfeited be to the crown ; and that you yourselves from 
this province 

Be transported to other lands. God grant you may dwell 
there 

Ever as faithful subjects, a happy and peaceable people ! 

Prisoners now I declare you, for such is his Majesty's 
pleasure !'' 



Four times the sun had risen and set; and now on the 
lifth day 
Cheerily called the cock to the sleeping maids of the 
farm-house. 



THE ACADIANS OF ROMANCE. 81 

Soon o'er the yellow fields, in silent and moiunlul jiroces- 

sion, 
Came from the neighboring hamlets and farms the Acadian 

women, 
Driving in ponderous wains their household goods to the 

sea-shore, 
Pausinij and looking; back to jjaze once more on their 

dwellings, 
Ere they were shut from sight by the winding road and 

the woodland. 
Close at their sides their children ran, and urged on the 

oxen, 
While in their little hands they clasped some fragments of 

playthings. 

Thus to the Gaspereau's mouth thev hurried; and there 
on the sea-beach 
Piled in confusion lav the household goods of the peasants. 
All day long between the shore and the ships did the boats 

ply: 

All day long the wains came laboring down from the vil- 
lage. 

Late in the afternoon, when the sun was near to his 
setting, 

Echoed far o'er the fields came the roll ol drums from the 
churchyard. 

Thither the women and children thronged. On a sudden 
the church-doors 

Opened, and forth came the guard, and marching in 
gloomy procession 

Followed the long-imprisoned, but patient, Acadian 
farmers. 



82 IN ACADIA. 

Even as pilgrims, who journey afar from their homes and 

their country, 
Sing as they go, and in singing forget they are weary and 

wayworn, 
So with songs on their lips the Acadian peasants descended 
Down from the church to the shore, amid their wives and 

their daughters. 



Half way down to the shore Evangeline waited in silence ; 
Not overcome with grief, but strong in the hour of 

affliction — 
Calmly and sadly she waited, until the procession ap- 
proached her. 
And she beheld the face of Gabriel pale with emotion. 
Tears then tilled her eyes, and, eagerly running to meet 

him, 
Clasped she his hands, and laid her head on his shoulder, 

and whispered, — 
" Gabriel! be of good cheer! for if we love one another 
Nothing, in truth, can harm us, whatever mischances may 

happen!" 
Smiling she spake these words; then suddenly paused, 

for her father 
Saw she, slowl}^ advancing. Alas! how changed was 

his aspect! 
Gone was the glow from his cheek, and the fire from his 

eye, and his footstep 
Heavier seemed with the weight of the heavy heart in his 

bosom. 
But with a smile and a sigh, she clasped his neck and 

embraced him, 



THE ACADIANS OF ROMANCE. m 

Spcakinu words of endcarnient where words ol cm tort 
availed not. 

Thus to the Gaspereairs mouth moved on that mourntul 
procession. 

There disorder prevailed, and the tumult and stir ol em- 
barking. 
Busily plied the freighted boats; and in the confusion 
Wives were torn from their husbands, and mothers, too 

late, saw their children 
Left on the land, extending their arms, with wildest en- 
treaties. 
So unto separate ships were Basil and Gabriel carried 
While in despair on the shore Evangeline stood with her 
father. 

***** j^ 

***** 

And with the ebb of the tide the ships sailed out of the 

harbor. 
Leaving behind them the dead on the shore, and the 

village in ruins. 

II. 

Many a weary year had passed since the burnin<>- of 

Grand-Pre, '^ 

When on the falling tide the freighted vessels departed 
Bearing a nation, with all its household gods, into exile' 
Lxile without an end, and without an example in story ' 
Far asunder, on separate coasts, the Acadians landed • 
Scattered were they, like flakes of snow, when the wind 

from the northeast 
Strikes aslant through the fogs that darken the Banks of 
Newfoundland. 



84 I A' ACADIA. 

Friendless, homeless, hopeless, they wandered from city 
to city. 

From the cold lakes of the North to sultry Southern sa- 
vannas, — 

From the bleak shores of the sea to the lands where the 
Father of Waters 

Seizes the hills in his hands, and drags them down to the 
ocean, 

Deep in their sands to bury the scattered bones of the 
mammoth. 



Friends they sought and homes; and many, despairing, 

heart-broken. 
Asked of the earth but a grave, and no longer a friend 

nor a fireside. 
Written their history stands on tablets of stone in the 

churchyards. 
Lono- amonsf them was seen a maiden who waited and 

wandered. 
Lowly and meek in spirit, and patiently suffering all 

thino-s. 



Sometimes she lingered in towns, till, urged by the fever 
within her, 

Urged by a restless longing, the hunger and thirst of the 
spirit, 

She would commence again her endless search and en- 
deavor ; 

Sometimes in churchyards strayed, and gazed on the 
crosses and tombstones. 



THE ACADIANS OF ROMANCE. 87 

Sat by some nameless grave, and thought that perhaps in 
its bosom 

He was already at rest, and she longed to slumber beside 
him. 

Thus did that poor soul wander in want and cheerless 
discomfort, 

Bleeding, barefooted, over the shards and thorns of exist- 
ence. 



It was the month of May. Far down the Beautilul 
River, 

Past the Ohio shore and past the mouth of the Wabash, 

Into the golden stream of the broad and swift Missis- 
sippi, 

Floated a cumbrous boat, that was rowed by Acadian boat- 
men. 

It was a band of exiles: a raft, as it were, from the ship- 
wrecked 

Nation, scattered along the coast, now floating together. 

Bound by the bonds of a common belief and a common 
misfortune ; 

Men and women and children, who, guided I'ty hope or bv 
hearsay. 

Sought for their kith and their kin among the few-acred 
farmers 

On the Acadian coast, and the prairies of fair Opelousas. 

With them Evangeline went, and her guide, the Father 
Felician. 

Onward o'er sunken sands, through a wilderness sombre 
with forests, 

Day after day they glided adow n tin- turbulent river; 



88 IlV ACADIA. 

Night after night, bv their blazing tires, encamped on its 
borders. 

Now through rushino- chutes, among green islands, where 
plumelike 

Cotton trees nodded their shadowy crests, they swept with 
the current. 

Then emerged into broad lagoons, where silvery sandbars 

Lay in the stream, and along the wimpling waves of their 
margin, 

Shining with snow-white plumes, large flocks of pelicans 
waded. 

Level the landscape grew, and along the shores of the 
river. 

Shaded bv china trees, in the midst of luxuriant gardens. 

Stood the houses of planters, with negro cabins and dove- 
cots. 

Thev were approaching the region where reigns perpetual 
summer. 

Where through the Golden Coast, and groves of orange 
and citron. 

Sweeps with majestic curve the river away to the east- 
ward. 

They, too, swer\edfrom their course: and, entering the 
Bayou of Plaquemine, 

Soon were lost in a maze of sluggish and devious waters. 

Which, like a network of steel, extended in everv direc- 
tion. 

Over their heads the towering and tenebrous boughs of 
the cypress 

Met in a duskv arch, and trailing mosses in mid-air 

Waved like banners that hang on the walls of ancient 
cathedrals. 



THE ACADIANS OF ROMANCE. 91 

Deathlike the silence seemed, and unbroken, save by the 

herons 
Home to their roosts in the cedar trees returnint( at sunset. 
Or by the owl, as he greeted the moon with demoniac 

laughter. 
Lovel}' the moonlight was as it glanced and gleamed on 

the water. 
Gleamed on the columns of C3'press and cedar sustaining 

the arches, 
Down through whose broken vaults it fell as through 

chinks in a ruin. 
Dreamlike, and indistinct, and strange were all things 

around them ; 
And o'er their spirits there came a feeling of wonder and 

sadness — 
Strange forebodings of ill, unseen and that can not be 

compassed. 
As, at the tramp of a horse's hoof on the turf of the prai- 
ries, 
Far in advance are closed the leaves of the shrinking mi- 
mosa. 
So, at the hoof-beats of fate, with sad forebodings of evil. 
Shrinks and closes the heart, ere the stroke of doom has 

attained it. 
Hut Evangeline's heart was sustained by <i vision, that 

faintly 
Floated before her eyes, and beckoned her on through the 

moonlight. 
It was the thought of her brain that assumed the shape of 

a phantom. 
Through those shadowy aisles had Gabriel wandered 

before her. 



92 IN ACADIA. 

And every stroke of the oar now brought him nearer and 
nearer. 

********* 

Thus ere another noon they emerged from the shades : and 
before them 

Lay, in the golden sun, the lakes of the Atchafalaya. 

Water-lilies in myriads rocked on the slight undulations 

Made b}- the passing oars, and, resplendent in beaut}^, the 
lotus 

Lifted her golden crown above the heads of the boat- 
men. 

Faint was the air with the odorous breath of magnolia 
blossoms. 

And with the heat of noon; and numberless sylvan islands, 

Fragrant and thickl}^ embowered with blossoming hedges 
of roses, 

Near to whose shores they glided along, invited to slumber. 

Soon by the fairest of these their weary oars were sus- 
pended. 

Under the boughs of Wachita willows, that grew b}' the 
margin. 

Safely their boat was moored ; and scattered about on the 
greensward. 

Tired with their midnight toil, the wear}^ travelers slum- 
bered. 

Over them vast and high extended the cope of a cedar. 

Swinging from its great arms, the trumpet-flower and the 
grapevine 

Hung their ladder of ropes aloft like the ladder of Jacob, 

On whose pendulous stairs the angels ascending, de- 
scending. 




j^y -„- 7^; 



TUB ACADIAXS ()/• ROMAXCE. 9o 

\Vere the swift hiimmin^-liirds. that Hitted troin lih)SS()ni 
to blossom. 

Such was the vision Evannx'hiif saw as she shimbered 
beneath it. 

Filled was her heart with lo\e, and the dawn of an open- 
ing" heaven 

Lighted her soul in sleep with the j^iory of regions celes- 
tial. 
Nearer, ever nearer, among the numberless islands, 

Darted a light, swift boat, that sped awa}' o'er the water. 

Urged on its course by the sinewy arms of hunters and 
trappers. 

Northward its prow was turned, to the land of the bison 
and beaver. 

At the helm sat a youth, with countenance thoughtful and 
careworn. 

Dark and neglected locks overshadowed his brow, and a 
sadness 

Somewhat beyond his years on his face was legiblv writ- 
ten. 

Gabriel was it, who, weary with waiting, unhappy and 
restless, 

Sought in the Western wilds oblivion of self and of sor- 
row. 

Swiftly they glided along, close under the lee of the 
island. 

But by the opposite bank, and behind a screen of pal- 
mettos ; 

So that they saw not the boat, where it lav concealed in 
the willows ; 

All undisturbed by the dash of their oars, and unseen, 
were the sleepers; 



96 lA^ ACADIA. 

An<^el of God was there none to av\ iken the shimberino- 

maiden. 
Swiftly they glided away, like the sni.de of a cloud on 

the prairie. 

********* 

Then, said Father Felician, 

" Daughter, thy words are not idle; nor are they to me 
without meaning, 

Feeling is deep and still ; and the word that floats on the 
surface 

Is as the tossing buoy, that betrays where the anchor is 
hidden. 

Therefore trust to thy heart, and to what the world calls 
illusions. 

Gabriel truly is near thee ; for not far away to the south- 
ward. 

On the banks of the Teche, are the towns of St. Maur and 
St. Martin. 

There the long-wandering bride shall be given again to 
her bridegroom. 

There the long-absent pastor regain his flock and his 
sheepfold. 

Beautiful is the land, with its prairies and forests of fruit 
trees ; 

Under the feet a garden of flowers, and the bluest of 
heavens 

Bending above, and resting its dome on the walls of the 
forest. 

They who dwell there have named it the Eden of Lou- 
isiana." 



THE ACADIANS OF ROMANCE. ni) 

\\'ith these words of cheer they arose and continued 
their journey. 

Softly the evening came. The sun from the western hor- 
izon 

Like a magician extended his golden wand o'er the land- 
scape : 

Twinkling vapors arose; and sky and water and forest 

Seemed all on tire at the touch, and melted and mingled 
together. 

Hanging between two skies, a cloud with edges of silver. 

Floated the boat, with its dripping oars, on the motionless 
water. 

Filled was Evangeline's heart with inexpressible sweet- 
ness. 

Touched by the magic spell, the sacred fountains of feel- 
ing 

Glowed with the light of love, as the skies and waters 
around her. 

Then from a neighboring thicket the mocking-bird, wildest 
of singers, 

Swinging aloft on a willow spray that hung oer the water. 

Shook from his little throat such floods of delirious music, 

That the whole air and the woods and the waves seemed 
silent to listen. 

Plaintive at first were the tones and sad : then soaring to 
madness 

Seemed the}' to follow or guide the revel of frenzied Bac- 
chantes. 

Single notes were then heard, in sorrowful, low lamenta- 
tion : 

Till, having gathered them all, he Hung them abroad in 
derision. 



100 IN ACADIA. 

As when, after a storm, a gust of wind through the tree 

tops 
Shakes down the rattling rain in a cr^'stal shower on the 

branches. 
With such a prekide as this, and hearts that throbbed with 

emotion. 
Slowly they entered the Teche, where it flows through the 

green Opelousas. 
And, through the amber air, above the crest of the wood- 
land. 
Saw the column of smoke that arose from a neighborino- 

dwelling; — 
Sounds of a horn they heard, and the distant lowing of 

cattle. 



Then, as the herdsman turned to the house, throuo-h the 

gate of the garden 
Saw he the forms of the priest and the maiden advancing 

to meet him, 
Suddenlv down from his horse he sprang in amazement, 

and forward 
Rushed with extended arms and exclamations of wonder; 
When they beheld his face, thev recognized Basil the 

blacksmith. 
Hearty his welcome was, as he led his guests to the 

garden. 
There in an arbor of roses with endless question and 

answer 
Gave thev vent to their hearts, and renewed their friendly 

embraces, 



THE ACADIAXS OF ROMANCE. 103 

Laughing; and weeping- by turns, or sitting- silent and 

thouL;"httul. 
Thoughtful, for Gabriel came not. 

Not that day, nor the next, nor yet the day that succeeded, 
Found they trace of his course, in lake or forest or river, 
Nor, after manv davs, had thev found him. 

********* 

Gabriel was not fori;"otten. Within her heart was his 

image, 
Clothed in the beauty of love and youth, as last she beheld 

him, 
Only more beautiful made bv his deathlike silence and 

absence. 
Into her thoughts of him time entered not, for it was not. 

Over him years had no power; he was not changed, but 

transfigured : 
Me had become to her heart as one who is dead, and not 

absent; 
Patience and abnegation of self, and devotion to others. 
This was the lesson a life of trial and sorrow had taught 

her. 
So was her love diffused, but, like to some odorous spices. 
Suffered no waste nor loss, thou<j^h fillinij the air with 

aroma. 
Other hope had she none, nor wish in life, but to 
Meekly follow, with reverent steps, the sacred feet ot lier 

Saviour. 
Thus many years she lived as a Sister of Mercv : fre- 
quenting 



104 /.V AC AD/ A. 

Lonely and wretched roofs in the crowded lanes of the 

city, 
Where distress and want concealed themselves from the 

sunlight, 
Where disease and sorrow in o^arrets lang'uished neerlected. 

All was ended now, the hope, and the fear, and the 

sorrow, 
All the aching of heart, the restless, unsatisfied longing, 
All the dull, deep pain, and constant anguish of patience ! 
And, as she pressed once more the lifeless head to her 

bosom. 
Meekly she bowed her own, and murmured, " Father, I 

thank thee!" 



Still stands the forest primeval; but under the shade of 
its branches 
Dwells another race, with other customs and language. 
Only along the shore of the mournful and misty Atlantic 
Linger a few Acadian peasants, whose fathers from exile 
Wandered back to their native land to die in its bosom. 
In the fisherman's cot the wheel and the loom are still 

busy : 
Maidens still wear their Norman caps and their kirtles of 

homespun. 
And by the evening fire repeat Evangeline's story. 
While from its rocky caverns the deep-voiced, neighbor- 
ing ocean 
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of 
the forest. 

THE END. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




